Consumer Connections

Whether with new product development, sustainability measures or event sponsorships, textile firms are direct dialing into the lives of today’s end users

The path to profitability these days is laden with challenges. Tight credit, lean inventories and rising costs are keeping many firms at a crossroads in terms of seeking means of growth. But one trail being cleared is leading textile companies to closer contact with consumers. Far more than in the past, this season textile executives are putting extensive effort into engaging the end user.

What’s interesting is that a variety of methods are being employed. Some are opting for sponsorships of well-known outdoor festivals, while others are tapping consumers for product development. New athlete advisory boards have been put in place and enhanced websites are also coming into play.

The world of social networking is aiding this trend. It’s easier than ever to interact with consumers what with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The everyday user is available 24/7.

“The world is changing quickly and companies are taking a more social approach to the end user,” says Schoeller spokesperson Shannon Walton. “We want to reach the end consumer more than we have done in the past. We want to develop a community that helps end users understand Schoeller product.”

Managers also explain that going direct helps distinguish their brand in a crowded field. Virtual opportunities now exist as an efficient way to tell a product’s story, a company history, or explain a technology.

“A lot of the gear is so similar and all the claims are vanilla, there is a real need to distinguish yourself in the market,” comments Brad Poorman, CEO, Cocona. To this end his company is a launching a global wear test competition to gain important feedback from end users.

In addition to marketing efforts, companies continue to invest in new product. Polartec, for instance will be introducing a new softshell that brings this category to a higher level of performance while appealing to a wider consumer audience. With the new technologies, the company refers to the product as “the Holy Grail of softshell.”

Eco initiatives are also a path to profitability in 2010. Some companies are investing in certification processes, such as Nuwa, while others continue to develop eco products, such as Unifi’s and Thermore’s post consumer recycle product.

Here’s a roundup of how 12 top companies are seeking success in the year ahead

COCONA: The company is launching a global contest to attract thousands of gear testers to demonstrate new products. Called the Cocona Xcelerator Gear Test Contest, the challenge looks to attract end users around the globe testing new Cocona product. Specifically, gear will feature a new technology that prints Cocona on the fabric, rather than mixing it into the yarn. The technology, Xcelerator, offers a higher performance level, along with visual interest, according to Brad Poorman, Cocona CEO.

“What is the most convincing argument to get a brand to jump on board? Offer mounds of date from thousands of testers around the world,” says Poorman. “By creating a feedback loop we get input that we can relay to designers -- here’s what we got directly from in the field.”

The contest will launch in January with consumers signing up by way of Cocona ads in Backpacker Magazine and the Cocona website. “We can talk test methods until we are blue in the face,” says Poorman. “But the most relevant information is to have the consumer running around in the garment.”
About 1,000 pieces of Cocona clothing will be gear tested. Results will be posted on blogs and will inspire more social media type interaction with consumers. “Social media is influencing and changing the way of doing things,” says Poorman.

“We plan to be involved with blogs that are popular with the outdoor industry and tweet about the contest.”

Poorman looks at the contest as a way to tell a performance story about Cocona. The brand has established itself with its strong sustainability message, but with the contest and new technology, functionality, not just the eco-properties of Cocona will be apparent.

NUWA:- A first for a Chinese corporate company, Honmyue Enterprise Co., Ltd. of Taiwan and its American subsidiary, Nüwa Textiles, announce that their facilities in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China and Chuang-Hua, Taiwan have earned certification by bluesign technologies ag, St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Honmyue holds the distinction of being the first plant designed and built following bluesign principles for its plant in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China. The company closely worked with bluesign and Nüwa Textiles to insure the new factory fulfilled the five pillars of the certifying agency: resource productivity, consumer safety, air emission, water emission, and occupational health and safety.

“Our goal is to reduce water, energy, and chemical use while producing the highest quality textiles,” said Nüwa Textiles president Michael Shih, “At the same time we must always be aware of the safety of our employees.”

The infrastructure of both facilities is designed to recycle all of the water used in the manufacturing process. The Jiaxing plant recycles 100 percent of the water used in weaving compared to the earlier design in Taiwan that reaches 80 percent. The difference is testament to a plumbing design that allows for more non-technical reuse of the water.

Designing the plant according to bluesign philosophy and standards helps lower energy usage by making sure all pipes, tanks, and dying machines are heavily insulated. Since consistent high temperature is critical to quality dyeing, proper insulation ensures not only an efficient use of energy but also a highly dependable product result.

Honmyue Enterprises is one of the largest manufacturers for woven fabrics. Honmyue’s largest facility in the company is a 1,000-weaving loom plant near Taichung, Taiwan. The newest is a completely vertical plant near Jiaxing, China. It includes approximately 250 weaving looms and a dyeing and finishing facility. Honmyue produces over 20 million yards a month.

GORE: Gore will be showcasing the new U.S. Olympic Snowboarding Team’s uniform they have been working on with Burton. Jake Burton, founder and chairman of Burton Snowboards says, “For the creation of the U.S. Snowboard Team uniform, we listened carefully to the riders’ needs and used their input to ensure that the final fit, fabrics and overall design would maximize their performances and take these riders to the podium.”
The Gore-Tex brand is the official fabric of the 2010 U.S. Snowboarding Team’s Olympic outerwear.

CANADA GOOSE: The garment maker has a new Thermal Mapping technology that combines down insulation and softshell flexibility in one piece. The line brings together gender-specific placement of down insulation and the flexibility and performance attributes of a softshell within one garment for a broad variety of end uses. Canada Goose’s Thermal Mapping technology will launch with the introduction of its HyBridge jackets, hoodies and vests for men and women.

“The Canada Goose Thermal Mapping technology leverages our expertise in down insulation and technical design,” says Kevin Spreekmeester, vice president of marketing for Canada Goose. “This concept strategically uses down to ensure warmth in critical areas and softshell maneuverability where most needed.”

POLARTEC: “This product is the Holy Grail of softshell,” says Nate Simmons, global director of marketing for Polartec. “It offers the best of both worlds – high water repellency and true breathability. Previously, or with other product, something was sacrificed. But when you combine these two elements it creates something special.”

Called Polartec Power Shield Pro, the fabric allows for a wider range of weather protection for a wider range of activities. Thanks to a new proprietary membrane technology and lamination techniques, Polartec Power Shield Pro allows true air permeability (8 l/m2/sec = 2CFM) for a controlled two-way air exchange that significantly improves moisture transport over softshells that do not allow airflow. At the same time, Polartec Power Shield Pro holds a water column of 5000mm, offering superior water resistance.

Polartec Power Shield Pro is a laminate that can offer a combination of poly or nylon woven face fabrics with excellent DWR and durability characteristics, paired with lightweight to high loft backs. Sandwiched in between is a proprietary new hydrophobic, microporous polyurethane membrane that allows actual airflow through the entire fabric package but stops water from penetrating. The combination of the new membrane and lamination techniques delivers a high level of performance through air channels that flow through the fabric from the inside to the outer surface.

“We are getting the market to re-think breathabillity,” says Simmons. “This product is not just a tweak; it is a whole different animal.”

Important in the development of the new Polartec Power Shield Pro was the company’s new athlete advisory board. The diverse, international group of world-class climbers, skiers, alpinists, cyclists, adventure racers and multi-sport athletes test product year round and meet regularly with Polartec’s development team to provide feedback and discuss performance fabric technology.

”Our advisory board will take real-world testing to a new level. We have a long list of new developments that they will be evaluating for consumer launches in 2011 and beyond,” says Simmons.

SCHOELLER: The company is more consumer focused with new event sponsorships. In addition Schoeller will come to Outdoor Retailer with new fabric, new brand partners and the continued diversification of the company’s coldblack technology.

“We are going direct to meet consumers,” says Shannon Walton, Schoeller spokesperson. The company will have sponsorship roles at the Ouray, Red Rocks and New River Gorge festivals, each an extremely popular consumer event. “At the festivals we will be on site and work with brand partners and get some direct experience talking with consumers,” says Walton, “We Facebook and Twitter with links to our website and have a YouTube station, which we continue to strengthen.”

On the fabric front, Schoeller is now doing wool with c-change technology. A new product in development with Spyder is a wool/cashmere blend, meant to be an outerwear piece that addresses both fashion and function.

New brand partners for Schoeller include Isaora, a New York City brand whose lead designer was previously with Theory, and Aether, a Los Angeles-based company whose owners grew up boarding and have created two lines of functionally high quality but fashionable clothes. Both companies design for crossover looks. “Multi-wear is the new buzzword,” says Walton. “You have one piece for everything.”

PRIMALOFT: The insulation specialists have been involved in sponsorships for a few years, but the company is “putting more muscle” into it.” “We are engaging more through our sponsorship involvement,” explains Eileen Berner, PrimaLoft sales and marketing director.

The company, for example, is now the primary sponsor for TNF Master Series – the largest big mountain snowboard tour in the country. PrimaLoft is also a sponsor at the Ouray Ice Festival and has signed on to be the technical insulation and sleeping bag sponsor of the BackPacker Get Out More Tour.

“Our sponsorship with the Get Out More Tour is a key initiative of PrimaLoft products’ active engagement campaign,” says Berner. “It’s a fun and interactive way to demonstrate the technical properties of PrimaLoft insulation and get our products into the hands of thousands of outdoor fans across the country.”

PrimaLoft is not just donating money and putting up a banner, according to Berner. “We are involved; we bring in sales people and sales management and are involved with our brands and involved with the consumers.”

In addition, this past October PrimaLoft posted a Facebook page “It is helping us understand more about our consumer. There is still lots of room to grow in this area.”

According to Berner, last year parent Albany International took cost control measures but did not cut marketing. “If anything we turned up the heat on sponsorships.”

For example, this winter the PrimaLoft logo will be prominently displayed at ski resorts and on the mobile phones of skiers and boarders from coast to coast as a result of a new advertising campaign with Sitour USA.

As part of the branding initiative, PrimaLoft is pioneering a customized PrimaLoft Mobile Map Program allowing skiers and boarders an opportunity to download mountain trail maps direct to their smart phones by texting PrimaLoft brand messages to a dedicated phone number. This is the first program of its kind to be unveiled on a national level.

CONCEPT III: The company is now representing Polygenie product. Originally designed for industrial antimicrobial use, it was made available to select brands in Europe and Australia for use in textiles and apparel in 2006. Now, CIII has signed on to market and sell Polygiene in North America to the active sports and outdoor markets and will debut it at Outdoor Retailer.

According to the company, Polygiene has several advantages including (1) It can be applied at any point in manufacturing from the fiber stage through finished products – even shoes – only one other competitor can do this; and (2) It is bluesign and Oeko-tex approved and EPA approved and has a class one medical rating, making it safe even for open wounds

INVISTA: CoolMax Extreme and adidas Golf brand teams are launching a globetrotting “Wear In The World” golf adventure of some of the world’s most extreme golf courses to test apparel featuring ClimaCool, ClimaLite and ClimaProof. Canadian Lindsay Knowlton (handicap of 3) and American Josh Sullivan (handicap of 5) will play the most extreme courses in Death Valley, United States; Bolivia, Argentina; South Africa and Australia.
Each day of their adventure will be documented with video and blog entries that’ll be promoted on the adidasgolf.com and golf.com websites, as well as daily tweets and Facebook updates from Knowlton and Sullivan.

The company’s sister brand, Corduroy, is showcasing the new JanSport Right Pack featuring Cordura fabric technology at Outdoor Retailer. The two brands are coming together to re-create the pack made famous in the 90s. The high-performance pack is constructed with 1000 denier Cordura Classic fabric and features one large main compartment, padded shoulder straps and back panel.

The Right Pack will also feature the newly designed Cordura brand hangtag and sew-in label.

UNIFI: A partnership with Polartec and a new satellite office in El Salvador are key developments for Unifi’s path to profitability in the year ahead.

From a product standpoint, the company is moving in the direction of 100 percent post consumer recycled product. Management has been working on this from the tech side, supply chain side and the marketing side along with Polartec on fabric development.

Together the companies will roll out a new brand exclusive for Polartec called Repreve 100, to be introduced at Outdoor Retailer.

“This shows a substantial commitment to the evolution of Repreve and establishes Repreve as a leading recycled product in the market,” comments Roger Berrier, EVP, Unifi.

Unifi offers a variety of Repreve options including post industrial waste and post consumer recycled (pcr) ranging from a 65/35 blend to 100 post consumer. The 100 percent pcr calls for 27 bottles per pound. The product is expected into retail for Fall/winter 2010-11.

“In the past we used a combination of post consumer and post industrial waste, but now 100% pcr is getting more interest. It is a more consumer-friendly story to tell and people can relate more to bottles,” says Berrier.

In addition to product development, the company has opened an EL Salvador office. “We have a customer base there that we need to take care of,” says Berrier. “We are not exiting the U.S., but with 8 percent of domestic production, it has been growing and CAFTA is growing as a region. It is a bright spot for our region of trade. Our strategy is to service these customers and generate sales,” Berrier continues. “We’re having to improve customer service to provide flexibility to them. We put a warehouse there and look to put production assets there to help them service their customers.”

On the home front, Unifi has invested $6 million to build in flexibility around the value added yarns. “Orders today require quick turns so have invested capital to be more efficient in smaller lots and quicker turns,” Berrier says. “We continue to invest in core assets and adapt to changing needs. We want our customers to remain competitive.”

Thermore –Thermore will offer both its Rinnova 100% and Rinnova thermal insulations, made from recycled PET fibers, in new weights. Rinnova 100% is available now in 115- and 150-gram weights and the original Rinnova in a 200-gram weight. These new weights are now available to meet the company’s increased demand for its popular “green” insulation.

Joe DiGirolamo, Thermore’s director of sales for North America, says, “Our Rinnova represents the ultimate eco-friendly insulation that takes the ‘green’ concept to a new level. Our clients have seen the value in these materials and an increased demand has dictated that we add a wider selection of weights as the green concept spreads to other parts of their lines.”

Both Rinnova products were developed to achieve a higher recycled content, yet maintain a soft hand.

Rinnova 100 is made from 100 percent recycled PET fibers (derived from plastic bottles). Besides the 115- and 150-gram weights, Rinnova 100% insulation is also available in 60-, 80- and 100-gram weights for a wide range of weather conditions. It’s design friendly because of its two thickness options per weight—High Loft for a tradtional look and Super Compact for slim fitting outerwear and gloves.

Rinnova was launched in 2006 and uses a combination of fibers which are derived from 50 percent recycled PET and 50 percemt virgin polyester. Rinnova is also available in 80-, 115- and 150-gram weights.

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